Little Rock, AR: Union Station and MoPac/SIMS Railyards

Depot: (Satellite)

Classification Railyard: (Satellite)

Backshop Railyard: (Satellite, it still has a transfer table.)

Abandoned Coach Railyard: (Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2015

RRAdventrues posted four photos with the comment: "Union Station— in Little Rock, AR."

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The Amtrak passengers have to walk a rather long way aways to get to the platform.

Street View, Aug 2019

The back shop with a transfer table on the east end.

Satellite

SIMS (St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern) had two through routes this this metro area. By they 1954, MoPac had bought SIMS. MoPac and SSW (Cotton Belt) had branches that terminated here. I presume that MoPac and SSW shared this station with SIMS. Rock Island also had a through route, but they had their own Rock Island Depot. What remains of all of these routes is now owned by UP.

1954 North Little Rock, Mc Almont, Sweet Home and Little Rock Quads @ 24,000

Fort Worth, TX: 1900 Union Depot, 2002 Amtrak Depot and 1938 University/Santa Fe Freight House

Union Depot: (Satellite)

Amtrak Depot: (Satellite)

Freight House: (Satellite)

1900 Union Station

TheAshtonDepot_history
Union Depot was the Fort Worth Depot until Santa Fe was the only remaining railroad offering passenger service in 1960 when it became the Sante Fe Depot. Amtrak used it between 1973 and 1995. It opened as an event space in 2006.
"The Santa Fe Depot fell into disrepair after Amtrak left in 1995. Despite its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970, it became one of the city’s most endangered historic structures as it was slated for demolition. In 1998 the building was purchased by Shirlee and Taylor Gandy who took on the monumental task of saving The Depot." [They also purchased and redeveloped the adjacent freight house.]

"Over its life, the depot has served the Frisco, Rock Island, Burlington, Cotton Belt, Southern Pacific, and Santa Fe railroads." [HistoricFortWorth]

TheAshtonDepot_history
"Inside, the main waiting room was two stories high with an arched barrel-vaulted ceiling. The Depot’s tin roof and plaster detailing is original from the roof rebuild after the 1901 fire. The marble flooring shown in this photo is also original and intact today."

The Union Depot was remodelled in 1938.

TheAshtonDepot_history

FortWorthArchitecture

William A. Shaffer posted nine photos with the comment:

Fort Worth Depot. (4.21.08). 

Fort Worth, TX

(All Photos by William A. Shaffer)

These are all photos I shot of the Fort Worth Depot.  Also known as the Amtrak Depot, Intermodal Transit Center, and most recently, Fort Worth Central Station!

John Mier: Didn’t Amtrak use a different station 25+ years ago in FTW?

James Prater: John Mier The gable roof building in a couple of photos is the 1900-built Union Depot!

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Dennis DeBruler commented on James' comment
Indeed, Amtrak used what James called the Union Depot from 1973 to 1995. https://www.theashtondepot.com/history-architecture https://maps.app.goo.gl/2fr5XroGc62QjKWo6

LA Smith: Dennis DeBruler 1999 when I first hired out we used the old depot.

Dennis DeBruler: LA Smith Interesting. The Ashton Depot reference that I cited states: "The Santa Fe Depot fell into disrepair after Amtrak left in 1995. Despite its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970, it became one of the city’s most endangered historic structures as it was slated for demolition. In 1998 the building was purchased by Shirlee and Taylor Gandy who took on the monumental task of saving The Depot." So I dug deeper. Central Station did not open until 2002. https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/fort-worth-tx-ftw/ So Amtrak must have been using some sort of shack at the Union Depot's platform between 1995 and 2002 to avoid spending money on repairing the building. The federal taxpayers did pay part of the $14 million needed to build Central Station.

LA Smith: Dennis DeBruler I was there. So was James Prater and I do believe William A. Shaffer was there before we moved down the block.

Dennis DeBruler: LA Smith So, it sounds like Amtrak left in 2002 instead of 1995.

2002 Central Station (Amtrak Depot)

Street View, Jan 2022

 

GreatAmericanStations
"Central Station, built with federal and local funding of $14 million, spans 31,000 square feet."
It opened to the public in Jan 2002.

It got federal funding because it is an intermodal, e.g. busses, station.

Satellite

1938 Santa Fe Freight House

The Santa Fe freight house has also been repurposed. The Union Depot is near the right side of this view.

Street View, Jan 2025

FortWorthArchitecture
"The structure now houses the Fort Worth Center of the University of Texas at Arlington, which opened in 2007."

All

It continues to impress me how much downtown land was used for passenger train yards.

1955/57 Fort Worth and Haltom City Quads @ 24,000

Hazen, AR: 1915 Rock Island Depot and Caboose

(Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2013

I.e. Xam posted
Hazen, CRI&P-1915   Picture taken in 2019.

The grain elevator in the right background of the above street view is Riceland Foods.

Satellite

Street View, Nov 2024

A lot of rice must be grown around here.

Riceland

The SSW (Cotton Belt) route is marked as abandoned in the 1941 map. According to the 2004 SPV Map, Rock Island abandoned their east/west route.

1935/36 Hazen Quad @ 62,500

Thebes, IL: C&EI Depot

(Satellite, 6th Street was used to get to the depot.)

Andy Zukowski posted
Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Station in Thebes, Illinois.
Mike Samuel posted
Thebes, Illinois about 1910
Richard Fiedler shared

Andy Zukowski posted
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Depot in Thebes, Illinois (c. 1910)
Richard Fiedler shared

Andy Zukowski posted
Chicago & Eastern Depot in Thebes, Illinois. 1982
Dave Wallace: Nice brick! .. is this original location
Dennis DeBruler: Dave Wallace I don't think you could see the river that is in the background from the original location.
Andy Zukowski posted with a similar comment
Jim Kelling shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on Andy's post
6th Street goes down near the tracks because that was the location of the depot,
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.216584,-89.4596553,243m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
 https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/alexander/flight3/0bfz1040.jpg

Dennis DeBruler commented on Andy's post
The C&EI met the St. Louis Sothwestern Railway (Cotton Belt, SSW) and Missouri Pacific Railroads here. So did the IC because the C&EI shared the riverfront tracks to the south of Thebes. So all four of these railroads had trains that rolled past this depot. (Topo maps do not label shared railroad routes. I used another map to confirm that the track under the Thebes Bridge that goes North to meet the SSW+MP was shared by IC and C&EI.) 1966 Thebes Quad @ 24,000

I'm learning that aerial photos vary a lot even though I think they are taken just a few seconds apart. Note how different the shadow for the approach of the bridge is in this photo.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

I got curious as to where C&EI and IC quite sharing the route south of Thebes. The answer is Olive Branch, IL. I had to go back to older topo maps because IC rather quickly abandoned this route. Also note that this map does label the route west of Olive Branch as shared between IC and C&EI.

1934 Thebes Quad @ 62,500

Stuttgart, AK: Cotten Belt Depot and Rice Mill

Depot: (Satellite, the land is now a parking lot for trucks for the mill.)

Mill: (Satellite)

Paul Luchter posted
Stuttgart, Arkansas (Cotton Belt)

The buildings in the background in the depot photo caught my eye. It turns out it is a huge rice mill.

Satellite

The depot was on Harrison Street southeast of the tracks and west of Grand.

1939 Stuttgart Quad @ 62,500

This aerial photo verifies the topo map correctly marked the location of the depot.

Mar 6, 1966 @ 14,400; AR1VBDQ00010143

The depot would have been where these trucks are parked. Note that the buildings in the background of this view match the buildings in the background of the photo.

Street View, Jun 2014

Camden, AR: Preserved/MoPac/SIMS and Lost/Cotton Belt Depots

MoPac: (Satellite)

Cotton Belt+Rock Island: (Satellite, I presume RI shared the depot since it shared the tracks.)

SIMS = St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway

According to a Google Map label, the Chamber of Commerce now uses this building.

Track side.

Street View, Apr 2014

Street side. You can tell by the doors that the freight handling part was at the near end.

Street View, Jun 2013

Mark Donald posted two photos with the comment:

Missouri Pacific Passenger Depot. Then and Now. Constructed in 1904 by St. Louis Iron Mountain Southern. 

Camden, Arkansas.  Tracks were ripped in 2000/01

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The other route through town was the Cotton Belt. The Rock Island used that route to access this town, which terminated the RI branch. This map does mark the location of the MoPac depot, which made it easy to find it on a satellite image since it is extant.

1951 Camden Quad @ 24,000

Cotton Belt + Rock Island:

Raymond Storey posted
CAMDEN ARK

Paul Luchter commented on Raymond's post
Nice map shows CRI&P Camden as terminus of a line south out of Hot Colorado Springs, Colorado.